Border Posts Exactly Where They Should be, Research Team Says

Khmer Times/Ros Chanveasna

Tuesday, 29 September 2015

A border research team from the Royal Academy of Cambodia discovers a colonial-era border post in a flooded rice field. Kin Phea

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School of Vice: This is quite hilarious! How do they know that these tiny 'colonial' border posts have stayed rooted to the same spot after all these years?! The French must have applied some sort of magic glue to the markers when they posted them? Even a couple of maps supposedly deposited at the UN have vanished without a trace!

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“I just wonder why the research team is conducting the inspection without clear principles,” 

          Mr. Ponhearith

PHNOM PENH  (Khmer Times) – A border research team from the Royal Academy of Cambodia has been studying a multitude of maps and inspecting old border posts, some of which have been in place since French colonial rule, in an effort to calmly resolve the border issues between Cambodia and Vietnam.

Yong Pao, a research team member, said the group is not only finding and inspecting border posts against border maps, but also checking and verifying a new set of demarcation border posts recently set by the government.

“In 11 days, the research team has discovered 12 colonial-era border posts... which were used to demarcate the border between Cambodia and Vietnam by French colonial generals,” Mr. Pao said.  

“Initial results from the research disclosed that the current demarcated border posts by the government with Vietnam are completely correct and the same borderline of the 12 colonial-era border post were based on the Bonne maps... produced by French colonial generals,” Mr. Pao said. 

“As planned, we need two years to conduct and complete our mission because Cambodia shares a border of 1,270 km with Vietnam,” he added.

The government has borrowed historical maps held by France and the UN to help settle the issue of where the disputed border lies. The dispute has delayed further negotiations with Vietnam while the government defends the process against allegations by the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) that it is ceding land to Vietnam.

“They [CNRP leaders] always accused the government of using a fake [map] to demarcate posts,” Mr. Pao said. He described that allegation as “baseless.” Prime Minister Hun Sen has publicly slammed the opposition party for turning the border dispute into a political issue, saying they turned a sensitive process into a dangerous political farce. 

Yem Ponhearith, CNRP spokesman, told Khmer Times, “I haven’t received any clear information from this border research team yet, or perhaps did they just post that on their Facebook account?”

“I just wonder why the research team is conducting the inspection without clear principles,” Mr. Ponhearith added. “That’s why the CNRP has not yet recognized the efforts of the government and research team’s verification of the border maps,” he explained. “Our party president Sam Rainsy has spoken in more detail after studying the historical maps and seeing the actual soil.”